Prologue

They say that true love hurts, well this could almost kill me

Young love murder, that is what this must be

I would give it all to not be sleeping alone

Alone

The life is fading from me while you watch my heart bleed

Young love murder, that is what this must be

I would give it all to not be sleeping along

Alone

("The Harold Song" by Kesha)

Snake P.O.V.

I'm not really sure where to start with all this, so I guess a good way would be to say: Hello. My name is Snake. And yes, I know I'm about to babble, which isn't actually like me at all. Usually, people have a hard time getting me to open my mouth. It's not that I'm sullen. I guess I'm shy. Not that very many people try to have conversations with me.

But back to the name. Obviously, my parents didn't name me Snake—as far as I know, they do not hate me that much. The names are just a thing we do, and by we I mean my friends and I. We all have them. I'm not really sure why, other than that they amuse Joker, who's kind of the leader of our group and wears the glove from a skeleton costume over his hand because he gets a kick out of it.

As you can imagine, we are a little odd. Basically, we are the complete and total misfits of our high school. We like it that way—at least that's what Joker says, and Beast agrees with him because she loves him, and Dagger agrees with her because he loves her, and everyone else agrees with them because it's true, anyway. Peter and Wendy, for example, have a lot of disdain for all the "normal" kids. Doll happily calls herself a "spaz" and dresses up in boys' clothes because that's what makes her happy.

I don't know what I'm going to do next year, when everybody's gone. The whole group, except for me and Doll, were seniors this year, and Doll's parents are going to send her to some all-girls private school where she'll have to wear a plaid skirt and learn etiquette. I feel really bad for her, and for me as well—I'm used to being on my own, but that doesn't make it any less lonely.

Me, I'm just lucky to have people like them who are nice to me. I'm not used to having friends, but Joker invited me to their lunch table on my first day, and I'm much happier for it, I think. As for the names, they're all pretty self-explanatory: Dagger likes pointy objects (throwing them especially,) Beast is always bringing little (and sometimes bigger) animals to school with her, Jumbo's a big guy, and so on. As for me, I have scales.

Yeah, scales Just patches of them here and there. It's a rare skin condition. I don't mind them, really. They're gray and kind of shiny, and they're really tough, so I don't feel much through them. They're real sensitive to heat and cold though, which can be a pain. Oh, and also, I really like snakes—I have eight. But that might just be a coincidence.

So anyway, we're freaks, and that's fine with me. Today is the last day of school before summer vacation, so everything is about to change again. I don't know who the next group of "misfits" will be, but there will definitely be one—there always is. Nobody has to guess, however, who the next school "elite" will be: Ciel Phantomhive, Sebastian Michaelis, and their group.

Despite the fact that I don't do much social interaction, or maybe because of it, I'm a really good observer. Ciel and Sebastian interested me from the day I moved to this town halfway through Freshman year, the same way they interest everyone, and in the past year and a half I've learned a good deal about both of them.

When I watched movies and read books, I always thought the "girls love bad boys" thing was a cliché, but Sebastian is living proof that it is true. He is a Junior now, going into Senior year. He wears all black (so do I, but I guess he wears it differently,) has black hair that's long in the front and short in the back, eyes that are an almost disturbing shade of red, and the sort of smile that I think should freak people out, but instead makes them melt into boneless puddles on the floor. As far as I know, he's never been on more than one date with any girl, because that's all the time it takes to get what he needs out of them. I guess he really must be charming or something, because I wouldn't have thought this was possible. One time, Sebastian's name came up at our lunch table, and Beast said he was "A soulless bastard who should be castrated." Sebastian went on one date once with Beast, as well.

The real thing about Sebastian though, is that he's mysterious. He's very social, and he always sounds like he's flirting, but it seems like everything he says has a double meaning, and it's impossible to tell what that is. He radiates danger—not normal, "high-school cool-guy danger," like Wendy said once, but real danger, scary danger. Instead of being scared though, people have labeled him "dark," "alluring," "seductive," and "sexy."

(At this point, I would like to remind everyone that I'm recording these things as an impartial observer.)

And the there's Ciel Phantomhive. Him and Sebastian have been best friends for as long as anyone in my school can remember, even though they have nothing in common other than that they were both emancipated minors. Ciel is in my grade, and like I said, he and Sebastian are practically opposites. While Sebastian is "hot," Ciel is ice cold; Sebastian is tall and lithe, Ciel is slender and compact; Sebastian is "social," Ciel is walled-off; Sebastian has a "high-end goth" look, Ciel wears designer jeans and button-down shirts; Sebastian is a "serial dater," Ciel has been dating Elizabeth Middleford (the Head Cheerleader, naturally,) since elementary school. And nobody could call Ciel "sexy"—the word is entirely inappropriate. The only word to describe the way Ciel looks, with his soft, blue-black hair, delicate facial structure, and incredible sapphire-colored eyes is "beautiful."

And if Sebastian has mystery going for him, Ciel has made it an art form. Everybody knows his parents died when he was young, and now Ciel lives in his their mansion, operating his father's company, Funtom, but nobody knows how it all happened, or how Ciel even feels about it. The same way Sebastian carries about an aura of danger, Ciel seems to possess an inner light, something that draws people to him like moths to a flame. Around school, Ciel is famous for his icy personality and sarcasm, but everybody bends over backwards to make him happy—a seemingly impossible task. Even Sebastian never leaves his side.

It's really an interesting phenomenon to see. But I think there's something a little bit frightening about Ciel too—a look behind his eyes that a teenager shouldn't have. But anyway, I never planned on getting close enough to either Ciel or Sebastian to really interact. It was interesting for me to compile these profiles, but I'd never dream of even having a passing conversation with either of them. If I'm being completely honest, they intimidate me.

And that, in the end, is why I'm babbling right now. Today, the last day of my Sophomore year, I crashed into Ciel Phantomhive on my way out of the lunch line.